Footage of a kangaroo rescue in Canberra has gone viral after capturing hearts around Australia and the world.

A cyclist and a jogger, who even took off his pants to wade into the water, together carried a solitary eastern grey kangaroo out from the depths of Lake Burley Griffin on a chilly Tuesday morning.

The heroic effort was captured by fellow passerby David Boyd, who later shared the footage to Facebook where he described the water as “bloody freezing”.

Within a few hours his post clocked more than 2600 likes and hundreds of shares.

It then spread to other platforms like Twitter, where it was viewed well over 200,000 times by people around the world.

“Humanity. It still exists. Even with a funny accent,” one user in the US wrote.

Tweet from @JulianBAbbott

One of the rescuers, jogger Nic Crowther, told the ABC how he came across the kangaroo shivering in the cold lake.

“I’m not sure that kangaroos can express a want and a need, but he just looked like he wanted help,” he said.

He said that once the kangaroo was back on dry land, it stayed put and hung around with its rescuers for a little while.

The footage is sure to revive the ‘urban myth‘ of kangaroos going for a dip in the city’s famous lake.

With its low density and abundance of urban reserves, Canberra sees far more ‘roos than any other Australian capital city.

The ACT’s Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate has even referred to the city as the “kangaroo capital”.